Mahesh

I've always gone story based so far. But I have not released a lot of music videos in my music journey. This time, there is more attention being given to the visual aesthetic, colours used and the cinematography style to align with the Mahesh Music brand kit set up for 2024. It's the first time I've done so much prep work ahead of impending releases and tour, but I'm curious to see how it will all turn out.

The song Gravity by John Mayer changed everything for me. I was 15 years old at the time. The songwriting on it was incredible. It was the first time I even was fascinated so much with the songwriting and what the lyrics meant. I knew my perception of what music is about had changed that day. It has made me the musician and performer and writer I am today. At 32, I am getting my first tattoo this weekend, it happens to be a line off the song - "Keep me where the light is"

There are similarities and differences for sure. I feel the mainstream marketing approach is very much based on catering to numbers, especially when it comes to music style, length and format. I do not relate to that. Although I do believe some of the techniques and strategies they use are powerful in building connections. I tend to borrow these ideas and then try to incorporate that within my own demographic, my personal musical style and what my music should be portrayed as. For this current project, my wife has been helping me with doing some local fan audience market research. This will help me understand what my potential audiences already are like and how I can position my own music to these people in a friendly, interesting, sincere way. So far so good lol

Making a record is so much work! In the past 2 years, I felt like getting things set up for the actual work would be the hardest task - putting together a team, curating the songs, figuring out the budget etc. Now that these things are out of the way, I expected to feel a little relieved about it. I'm only intimidated about the things to come - getting the second round of demos recorded with the musicians, setting up the crowd funding campaign for the all the logistical costs, reviving my fan following to the level of excitement of my previous release - which was years ago. Sigh. Feels like and probably is a gazillion things that is NOT making music before actually getting to those fun bits. 🥲 One day at a time - that's how I've been able to keep my cool, really.

Such rooted influences on this record! The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel - I hear them all on this (ofc the signature Norah magic). I think I needed some fresh music that felt soo comfortingly nostalgic. Just thought I'd share it if somebody is feeling a little stuffy in these times and days.

I fear that I do. I remember when I was much younger how I was spending way more hours just randomly listening to all kinds of music or the music I love. It just doesn't happen the same way anymore. Sure, when a favourite artist of mine releases a record, I spend many hours on repeat for weeks and months and let myself believe I've rediscovered that simple joy of having a listening habit. The more this professional career of being a musician has taken over, there's just been so many things going on that you just don't get the same time, mind space or energy anymore. I have been trying to address this fear or concern of mine by creating curated playlists for different activities or moods. But yeah, looking to hear your thoughts. How often do you listen to music these days? How about compared to before? More or less?

Haven't heard of it but will totally check it out. In order for you to get things going with recording as you have described at home, you'd need the following A computer An audio interface, which is what you probably referred to here in this quote. It could be any of these brands but the most common one used by many around the world for home recording is Focusrite 2i2 or 4i4. The former is cheaper and does the job very well. This will allow you to plug both the guitar and vocals and record them both at the same time if you choose/want to. A good vocal microphone : There are two kinds of mics we'd be looking at here - a conderser mic or a dynamic mic. A condenser would work best for vocals in a good room that is acoustically treated. For home recordings, I suggest you get a nice dynamic microphone. An SM57 or a Sennheiser e835 are my suggestions. Very versatile, can be used not just for vocals but other instruments too. If you have the budget, an SM7B is an incredible purchase. This is my vocal mic at home and I would not trade it for anything. A good space to record that isn't too noisy A DAW / Digital Audio Workstation to record, mix, master and produce your music. Reaper or Cakewalk is what I suggest. Both are absolutely free and yet have industry grade tech going into handling sounds. They have loads of stock effects that can help you do everything from scratch and reach the full and final product. I suggest you look into these to begin with. Once you have some of these things set up and you are getting into setting up the DAW, I'm sure you will have some questions. Pop back in here or create a new topic and I'll be sure to come back and send some resources your way!

I'm so glad you're as obsessed as much as I am! I finished watching the breakdown a couple days ago. (it was a packed 2 hours 😅) It amazes me to see his approach to using the harmonies to guide the non tempo lead vocal performances by the featured artists. @john here it is bud.

Just curious, I hope you realise this introduction topic is from 2016 @Bridget Murphy. Did you actually mean to interact with the OP?

I'm a huge fan of his music. Though I will admit some of his music is probably too advanced for my ears but his genius musicality and understanding of sound is hard to ignore. He released his new album DJesse Vol 4 today. Just started getting into it but based on the singles he's released, I love the album already. Been obsessed with the collaboration for his fully vocal rendition of "Bridge over Troubled Water" with Yebba, John Legend and Tori Kelly.

Looking forward to hearing more mixes John! You have been at it lately!

We are in the era of free VST plugins for music production. There are so many free ones out there and really good ones at that. I know we already have a topic specific to free plugins but I wanted to point out this developer and their plugins because it is SOOO good. You'll find all of them for free download at https://analogobsession.com/ I'm particularly a fan of the LALA Leveling Amplifier which I have been using for vocals and the Pultec EQ emulation plugin called Rare. The latter sounds soo good on the mix bus. Anybody used them at all? I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

The acoustic guitar can do a decent job without being connected if it's a small closed space. If not, it may need some amplification too. I think a PA-like amp as you mentioned being rented would do good. If you have a money crunch, you may do without renting a mixer. But in this case, you'd need some sort of an audio interface connected to your computer that would do the job. For example : Instruments will connect to the input of the sound interface ---> sound interface will be connected through USB into your macbook pro ---> The output of the sound interface can go to your PA.

The way I addressed this requirement from me as a singer was by observing the qualities of sound played by a violin - bright tonality of the strings, very clear dynamics of how it swells up and dies down. I then used this information to choose my vocal sound deliberately to match these characteristics. I am grateful to have figured a way to control these specific elements of my voice as needed. Don't get me wrong, my voice surely doesn't sound like a violin. But I could replace the string sections quite effectively by analysing and reinterpreting the violin's playing. Pretty fun!

I had the Rode NT1 for a few months that a friend had lent me. Such a good microphone for vocals. Although you'd like your recording room to be well treated. I used to feel so frustrated when it could detect the faintest hint of a distant bark while I'm in the middle of a really good take. Sigh I use the dynamic Shure SM7B now at home for the vocals and they are just a pleasure to record with and built like a tank.

That's very interesting! The title of the song usually arrives way later in the process in my case, mostly after I've finished writing the chorus but not always. A good example for me was Drowning. I did start writing with a certain emotion and a certain backstory in my head. But the last word on the chorus "Are we foolish now? Just hold my hand as I drown" was what captured most of what I wanted to express and thus became the title of the song.

I still prefer jotting ideas down using pen and paper and recording those ideas on a phone recorder. The thing is to make sure I always come back to it. This is an issue I had with productivity lists and journaling as well. I would write things down but never come back to reflect. It's still something I'm working on. With the songs, recording ideas inside of a DAW or maybe even writing the song within a DAW has helped in the past. It is much easier to get back to it and also to build an idea in a little more solid way compared to my acoustic guitar and voice. My guitar playing skills may limit me in exploring certain ideas while having a DAW within your songwriting session does help experiment with a range of sounds and maybe even try something you have never tried before.

Welcome aboard @Dhritiman Das, nice to meet a fellow musician and singer-songwriter from the Indian music community!

- A whole bunch of singles and EPs with the big one later in the year. - Working on some great ideas to help our community here and help ourselves as well in the process. - Listen to more albums - old ones, new ones, whatever, bring it. - Just practice and play more often. Not for being a professional musician or any of that crap. For simply no reason at all!

Happy new year John! Here's to another year working together on Songstuff, our music, this community and more. Thank you for your friendship. Happy new year to everybody else here. I hope to connect with you all more often and have all our goals progress together with some interesting discussions and learning!

Welcome aboard Bashu! Nice to see an accordion player here. Do share some of your work if you feel comfortable with it.

This is exactly why I joined Songstuff as a teenager in 2011. I was advised to do so, interestingly enough, by the founder of CD Baby - Derek Sivers. I've not interacted with him in a while but he still responds to emails from indie musicians is what I've heard. Setting some boundaries within the webspace on what you post where (and why) helps to maximise growth so much more.

This is super helpful @Steve Mueske. Thank you!

So, I'm gearing up for my next EP/album for next year, and diving into this whole target audience research side of things. All these social media platforms that we use to grow our fans intentionally limit reach and force you to use their ad platforms. It helps to know as much as you can about the kind of listeners you may have and may want to have. But it's also a bit of a maze, you know? Wondering if any of you have been through this! How did you figure out who's into your music? Any strategies or tools you found helpful? What's been your experience with doing it DIY? Have you ever worked with a marketing agency for your musical releases? Any insights into the pros and cons? If you haven't delved into any of this yet, what are your thoughts on it?

I've seen certain former members here on Songstuff who post their unfinished works on Twitter and social media and ask other musicians to comment on them there. I found this confusing because maybe sharing a demo or a small snippet makes sense. But the whole song being posted and then looking to build a following there that way doesn't make sense.